Friends of all sorts and that haircut

Wednesday & Thursday
February 26 & 27, 2014
Blue Springs State Park
Orange City, Florida

 

 

WEDNESDAY

It is a foggy morning at Blue Springs. 

The air is full of water and the rain seems only seconds away.  David is getting ready to go into DeLand to get his monthly blood draws and to get his hair cut.  This may be the first none home haircut he’s had in over 30 years.   I have always cut his hair.  It was wavy and soft and easy to cut.  After his stem cell transplant his hair grew back with a very different texture.  It was more coarse and frizzy.  When he decided he wanted it cut, I was afraid to try it since I knew he didn’t really want to cut his hair at all but it had become too difficult to take care of.  So off to the Hair Cuttery he will go.

He is getting ready to leave, this is always a long process, when I go down for my morning walk along the spring run.  Fog always makes familiar places and things seem eerie.

 

The walk from the campground to the spring run.

 

 

The spring run at the mouth of the St. John’s River

 

 

Looking up the spring run toward the spring.

 

 

 

But fog or no fog, a guy’s gotta eat.  He just may have to look more closely to see the dinner.

 

 

 

The manatee too are very hard to see in the fog. 

The spring water is dark in the fog so unless they come very close to the surface I can not see them.The ranger I ask says he counted eight manatee today but the only two I see are Pixie with her tracking device and a friend.  You can see the tracking device here.  She tows it after her.  It is attached just above her tail with a soft band.  It is not “heavy” and goes beneath the water if she goes far down.  It looks like a giant bobber.

 

 

While I’m watching Pixie and friend, I hear what I recognize as pileated woodpecker calls off to my left.  I find there are two birds and they don’t seem to be drilling a hole for a nest but rather just throwing the bark off the limbs of a live oak near the boardwalk.  Looking for breakfast I assume. Their rapid fire motion makes it nearly impossible to get photos of them at least with my camera.   But they are so much fun to watch.   They do rapid fire hammering.  So fast you almost can’t see it.  And then they throw their head to one side or the other as if looking to make sure no one is observing them.   Back to drilling, throw the head to the other side.  I love watching these giant, easy to spot woodpeckers with their jungle like call.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to call them all Woody.  At the farm we had a resident pair that often hung out in the trees in our backyard.  It’s like seeing old friends.

 

 

So fast the camera can’t catch it either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sprinkles start before I get back to Winnona.

 

It isn’t long before the rain pours down.  It continues all day.  David returns from DeLand and takes some “after” pictures to go with the “before” shots.  He took the before in the early morning with no interior lighting.  The after shot has to be taken with the interior lighting.  It’s too dark not to.  So even though it is the same shirt, it doesn’t look the same color.  Perhaps the “antique” look gives the wild hair a bit of an advantage.

He doesn’t like the haircut. He knew he wouldn’t  Too short.  It had just gotten to be too much trouble to take care of.  I do think the before picture is about as good as that uncontrollable hair ever looked. With a hat on he often looked like Bozo. I have to agree that it is too short.  But I think at least I will like it in a week or so.   How about you?  Want to vote for which David you prefer?

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY

I have the answer for what to do when it rains, visit with friends.

 

I rained yesterday afternoon, all evening, all night is raining when I get up.  So I give up my morning walk for the first time this visit.Hope the manatee won’t miss me.

We laze around and have a delicious pancake breakfast.   In the afternoon just as we are about to leave, the rain quits.  We are off to a Seafood Shack that had been recommended to me by some local folks and is about half way between us and Laurie and George Owen.  

We met Laurie and George at two early RV Dreams Rallies and have been keeping up with each other ever since.  We had just bought Winnona and she was on her maiden voyage at the first rally.  We had just gone full time for the second one.   Laurie and George were engaged to be married and buying their RV for future full timing in the future.  They had a few of those life events that propel folks in things earlier than they planned but they seem very happy about it all now and are currently work camping in the Ocala National Forest before moving on in April to work camp at the Thurmond COE campground in South Carolina.  Then in September they will begin their first stint at Amazon taking care of everyone’s holiday orders.   These guys are really well organized.  I still have no idea where we will be on May day this year.

We have a wonderful time talking with them about all things RV, everyone’s future plans, the state of the world and medical care among other things.   The food turns out to all be deep fried in the same batter so that my onion rings and oysters taste about the same.  That is a disappointment but the company is not and we hang around for several hours before finally saying “see you later”.   I’m sure we will too.    We both said we would get the waitress to take a picture of the 4 of us but we were so busy having a good time that everyone forgot.   Thanks to David for taking this one just after we arrived.   And thanks to Laurie and George for a fun afternoon.  You guys are officially the first people to see the “new” David in person!!